Star Writer vs Obsidian
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Star Writer
Create mesmerizing psychedelic art with this drawing tool. The speed of your finger movements directly influences the flow of energy in your creations. Explore endless visual possibilities by adjusting star sizes.
- Psychedelic imagery creation
- Finger-drag responsive energy flow
- Adjustable star sizes
- Intuitive drawing interface
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Star Writer is the essential tool for creating beautiful psychedelic imagery. The flow of energy through your drawing is directly responsive to how fast you drag your finger across the screen. Adjust the size of your stars for endless possibilities!
Obsidian
Organize your thoughts and ideas with a powerful knowledge base that utilizes local Markdown files. This app acts as your personal second brain, accessible on your mobile device for seamless note-taking and idea connection.
- Local Markdown file storage
- Customizable toolbar
- Graph view for connections
- Community plugins
- Themes
- iCloud sync
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Obsidian is a powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files. It is a second brain, for you, forever. Now available on the go for iOS! Features include: - Customizable toolbar - Pull down quick actions - Graph view - Community plugins - Themes - Sidebar pinning for tablet - iCloud vaults
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Star Writer at 5.0 against Obsidian's 4.5. Star Writer also leads on review sentiment (83% vs 62%) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.6). Obsidian's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 42 months) and ratings volume (2.8K vs 6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Star Writer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Obsidian has 2.8K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Star Writer's written reviews are positive against 62% of Obsidian's.
Star Writer ships an update every 42 months, Obsidian every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Star Writer | Obsidian |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (6 ratings) — better | 4.5 (2.8K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better | 61.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 6 | 2.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 42 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | — | #126 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 20 MB | 40 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rainbow Brainskull LLC | Dynalist Inc. |
Customer experience
Star Writer
Obsidian
Bugs and requests
Star Writer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Obsidian
Reported bugs
3 issues- Sync issues leading to data loss
- Freezing and crashing on mobile devices
- Editing bugs and text input issues
Requested features
5 requests- Improved sorting and organization options
- WYSIWYG editing on mobile
- Better integration with other cloud storage services
- More intuitive onboarding process for new users
- Native mobile widgets and share sheet integration
In-app purchases
Star Writer
No in-app purchases
Obsidian
No in-app purchases
